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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 7, NUMBERS 11-12, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1994

BOOKS AND PROCEEDINGS... ENERGY POLICY

Item #d94nov145

Global Energy Strategies--Living with Restricted Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Environ. Sci. Res. Ser., Vol. 47), J.C. White, Ed., 214 pp., 1994, $75 U.S. & Canada/$90 elsewhere (Plenum).

Proceedings from a conference (Dec. 1992, Washington, D.C.), sponsored by the Center for Environmental Information, Rochester, N.Y. Covers the potential for non-fossil fuel energy sources; the potential for reducing carbon emissions through efficiency; U.S. energy policy and strategies; global energy strategies--perspectives of developing countries and economies in transition; integrating concerns of developing and developed nations.

Item #d94nov146

The following are available through OECD outlets (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Most are products of OECD's International Energy Agency (IEA).

Energy Policies of IEA Countries, 528 pp., $112, Oct. 1994. This 20th anniversary edition contains the first round of reviews undertaken through IEA Shared Goals, adopted by the ministers in 1993. Reviews energy policies of selected countries and presents a general report of major energy developments in member countries and elsewhere in the world.

IEA/OECD Scoping Study on Energy and Environmental Technologies to Respond to Global Climate Change Concerns, 250 pp., Sep. 1994. Currently available technologies are insufficient to reduce greenhouse gases significantly in the longer term. This study assesses technologies and development needs.

Investing in Energy Efficiency: The Role of Third Party Financing. Proceedings of a Conference. . , 160 pp., $40, Aug. 1994. Financing energy efficiency investments through third party "energy service companies" can help overcome certain impediments. Topics included the importance of contracts, sources of financing, role for government and utilities in promoting alternative financing, future markets.

Coal Information 1993 (1994 Ed.), 550 pp., July 1994, $125. A comprehensive reference on current world coal market terms and long-term prospects for OECD countries and selected non-OECD countries. Also includes a summary of environmental policies on climate change issues.

Technology Responses to Global Environmental Challenges, 974 pp., Feb. 1994, $100. Proceedings of an IEA conference. Sustained efforts must be undertaken by governments and the private sector if technological breakthroughs are to be achieved in the next several decades.

Hydropower, Energy and the Environment: Options for Increasing Output and Enhancing Benefits, 583 pp., $75, Feb. 1994. Proceedings of a conference that covered topics like regulatory approaches, economics, hydropower technology, and increasing hydropower output while decreasing environmental impacts.

Transport Policy and Global Warming, 245 pp., Jan. 1994, $45. Proceedings of an international European Conference of Ministers. Analyzes transport's role in global warming, particularly those policies likely to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Technology Strategy for the 21st Century, 370 pp., Jan. 1994, $89. Assesses the long-term technical and economic potential of new energy technologies to respond to energy security and environmental concerns. Issues include: advanced clean coal technologies, enhanced environmental protection in the oil chain; extensive use of new and renewable energy sources; more efficient energy end use; clean-car technologies.

Demand Side Management Management: Opportunities and Perspectives in the Asia-Pacific Region, with Emphasis on the Gas and Electricity Sectors, 308 pp., Jan. 1994, $42. Proceedings from a conference (Nov. 1993, Seoul, Korea) that addresses such issues as: barriers to increased efficiency, and the potential for adapting experiences from industrialized countries to the region's developing countries.

Technology and Management Strategies for the Twenty-First Century, 800 pp., Jan. 1994, $95. A conference proceedings that shows how environmental and energy security concerns can be alleviated for electric utilities and industry.

Electric Vehicles: Technology, Performance and Potential, 210 pp., Jan. 1994, $53. Gives an overview of the current status of electric car and truck developments in IEA countries. Examines prospects for technological advances in such areas as battery and vehicle performance and electric recharging.

Item #d94nov147

Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution, C. Flavin, N. Lenssen, 384pp., Oct. 1994, $10.95 (Worldwatch).

Predicts a turbulent decade in which large energy companies struggle to preserve the status quo, while newer firms and their environmental allies fight to change government policies and open energy markets to greater competition. Predicts emergence of several new, efficient or decentralized technologies. Calls for four changes in government policy: reducing current subsidies and increasing taxes on fossil fuels; redirecting research and development spending toward promising new technologies; accelerating investment in new devices; channeling international energy assistance for developing countries toward efficiency, natural gas and renewable energy.

Item #d94nov148

Energy in World History, V. Smil, 352 pp., Oct. 1994, $44.95/£33.50 hbk, $19.95/£13.50 pbk (Westview).

Traces the role of energy from human power in foraging societies to today's fossil-fueled civilization. Avoids simplistic, deterministic views of energy needs and recognizes the complex interplay of physical and social realities.

Item #d94nov149

The Next Great Thing: The Sun, the Stirling Engine, and the Drive to Change the World, M. Shelton, 272 pp., 1994, $25 (Norton).

Follows the activities of Sunpower Inc., and its founder William Beale and colleagues as they develop a solar-powered Stirling engine. A prototype is capable of running an individual house, but obstacles, such as lack of funding, remain.

Item #d94nov150

Annual Review of Energy and the Environment (Vol. 19), R.H. Socolow et al., Eds., 567 pp., Oct. 1994, $71 U.S./$76 elsewhere (Ann. Rev.).

Item #d94nov151

Sustainable Development and the Energy Industries: Implementation and Impacts of Environmental Legislation, 1994 (Roy. Inst. Intl. Affairs; U.S. distribution from Brookings Inst.).

Contains papers from diplomats, industry officials, and analysts.

Item #d94nov152

European Community Energy Law--Selected Topics, D.S. MacDougall, T.E. Wälde, Eds., 304 pp., 1994, $110 (Kluwer).

Legal practitioners, academics, energy industry representatives and others critique legal and policy considerations of EC energy regulation. Highlights practical implications, particularly for the oil and gas industry.

Item #d94nov153

New Renewable Energy Resources: A Guide to the Future, World Energy Council, 392 pp., July 1994, $50/$75 nonmembers (USEA).

Evaluates new renewable energy technologies, assesses cost data, appraises local environmental impacts, while stressing the need to balance concerns about climate change and the adverse local environmental impacts of renewable energy development.

Item #d94nov154

Renewable Energy from the Ocean: A Guide to OTEC, W.H. Avery, C. Wu, 480 pp., 1994, $52 (Oxford Univ.).

Reviews the status and background of this promising technology, providing the only detailed presentation of basic OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) techniques and testing available. Contains numerous references. Reviewed by P.H. Abelson in Science, pp. 419-420, July 15, 1994.

Item #d94nov155

Environmental Economic and Technological Aspects of Alternative Power Sources (Oceanog. Ser. 56), R.H. Charlier, 556 pp., 1993, $222.75/Dfl. 390 (Elsevier).

Provides a comprehensive review of current technology for ocean energy sources, opening with an analysis of OTEC. Also examined are solar ponds, ocean currents, marine winds, wave energy extraction, and power derived from salinity differences. Also looks at geothermal and marine biomass energy.

Item #d94nov156

The following three books were reviewed by I. Fells in Nature, pp. 27-28, July 7, 1994. These books express differing views on their subjects; strongly confrontational in the first instance, while Beck's book more coolly looks at pros and cons. Patterson, a long-time anti-nuclear campaigner, looks at biomass as a greenhouse-neutral energy source. The reviewer notes that the future of nuclear and renewable energy seem inextricably entwined because of the limited supplies of fossil fuels and the prospect of climate change.

Nuclear Renewal: Common Sense About Energy, R. Rhodes, 127 pp., 1993, $17.50 (Whittle/Viking).

Prospects and Strategies for Nuclear Power: Global Boon or Dangerous Diversion? P. Beck, 118 pp., 1994, £12.95 pbk. (Earthscan/Roy. Inst. Intl. Affairs).

Power from Plants: The Global Implications of New Technologies for Electricity from Biomass, W. Patterson, 102 pp., 1994, £9.95 (Earthscan/Roy. Inst. Intl. Affairs; in the U.S., Brookings Inst.).

Item #d94nov157

Coal for Development 1993, 1993, special price of £50 (World Coal Inst.).

A proceedings, including all presented papers and transcripts of summaries by panel chairpersons. Highlights the inescapable role for coal as the primary fuel for future economic development. Also serves as a reference on the coal industry's response to current environmental and technical challenges; analyzes the latest clean coal technologies; looks at challenges from and responses to principles of sustainable development.

Item #d94nov158

Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development: Challenges for the 21st Century, 1993, $144.95/$208.95 nonmembers (IAEE). A three volume set from the 16th international conference (July 1993, Bali, Indonesia).

Item #d94nov159

Energy and the Environment , 1993, $50.95/$70.95 nonmembers (IAEE). Proceedings from the 15th North American conference (Oct. 1993, Seattle, Washington).

Item #d94nov160

Car Trouble, S. Nadis, J.J. MacKenzie, 300 pp., 1993, $12 (Beacon Press).

Chronicles the history of automobile use, showing the changes, including climate change, that motor vehicles have caused. Argues that we should alter the fundamental way we think about transportation.